Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-10-24
THE OPIUM HABIT.
What Doctors and Druggists Say About
the Drug-The Views OF the
Police.
what Broke Up Opium Smoking in Luxu
rious DiVss-Ths Way the Chinese
Work Ie.
New York Sun,


The extent of the opium habit is not to
be fixed By careful inquiry. The record
of the Importation of opium to this coun-
try shows steady aud large increase.
In 1878, 1879 sad 1880, the imported
opium reached 2O7,752 pounds, 278,554
pou Ids aud $1,000. In later years the
: 5zJts:ici refer to the importation of
cases instead of pounds, but show the
same result. In 1885, 2344 cases were
consumed in the United States, in 1886,
1857, and in 1887, 1862 cases. The legiti-
mate uses of opium have, of course, in
creased with the growth OF the country
and the population. In its medicinal
uses opium is an unmixed blessing, and
is spoken of in the medical books IS one
of the most valuable remedies. But the
testimony OF the drug dealers go TO show
that the pernicious use OF opium Increases.
The action of the drug and its enslav-
ing power upon the senses is thus de-
scribed: t'It is stimulsnt narcotic,
and a moderate dose administered to a
healthy person increases the force, full
ness and frequency of the pulse, avg
ments the temperature Of the skin, inVig-
crates the muscular system, quickeps the
senses, snimstes the spirits, and gives
new energy to the intellectual faculties.
Its operation, while thus extending to all
parts of the system, is directed with Pc
Culiar force to the brain, the functions OF
VIII Oh it eXcites sometimes even to in
toxicstion or delirium. In G
short time this excitstion subsidies.
A cslmness Of the corporeal &C
ton and q delightful placldity OF
mind succeed; and the Individual, insen
sible to painful impressions, Forgetting all
sources of care and anxiety, submits
himself to q current of underlined and IN
connected but pleasing fancies, and IS
conscious of no other feeling than that of
quiet and vague enjoyment. Doses
which induce sleep after such an expert
ence often are succeeded by nausea,
headache and tremors. But the recu-
perative energy of the body, if the dose be
not too often repeated, is such that there
are no really harmful results. In doses
insufficient to produce the full soporitic
effect, the stimulating influence upon the
mental function continues longer, and
the subsequent calming efectis sustained
for hours. Sleep not infrequently is pre-
vented or rendered 30 light and dreamy
that the patient will scarcely admit that
be has slept at all"
These are the effects sought for and OBJ
tanned by the devotees of the drug, but
thew are purchased at fearful cost. The
smoker of the Chinese pipe progresses to-
ward the final wreck with increasing pal
lor of eyes and faces that once seen can
always be recognized. The morphine
eater shows somewhat similar condition,
varied by a tendency 10 pimples and
eruptions, the result OF the parslyzing
effect of the drug upon the bodily func-
lions and secretions. In ali phases OF
the habit the will power is entirely SUD-
ordinated. The victim is helpless. Any
delay in taking the usual dose results in
horrors such as the snake-seeing drunkard
never dreamed Of. The stomach is
gpaWed by the terrible appetite as with
the sharp teeth CT some wild animal, and
pains rack the body and limbs. The
head is also affected, and general feel
ing of being on the very verge Of total
collapse invests the sufferer with hor-
ror that is indescribable.
The effects here indicated as the por-
ton of those who resort to opium habitu-
ally with view TO its exhilarating infu-
ence were at one time believed to be in
danger of becoming common in this city,
through the medium of Chinese opium
Joints. They were started quietly in the
cellars of Mott and Pell streets, and soon
achieved 8 success that caused them to
spread. The heather of New York took
TO the dissipation with great avidity, and
the evil began to attract attention. The
queer little Chinese joints with rough
deal hunks and other appointments in
keeping developed into luxurious resorts,
decorated with brio brac, hung and car
peted with oriental rugs and calculated
to give tinge of splendor to the dreams
of the opium charged brain. These dens
crept in among the dives of other sorts
in the up town streets. They became the
very fashionable dissipation for men
and women about town, actors, gam
blers, and even in some cases actresses.
But they are things of the past. The
passage of q state law making it an
offense to keep an opium Joint was their
death kneI. There is no law against
smokit opium, but the enactment against
the maintenance of the places gave the
police q control of the matter. They had
power to raid these resorts, and though
nothing could be done to punish their
freuuenters in the end, they could be
Joint keepers were arrested and held for
at least a night in a cell. This dis
couraged the fiends and wiped out the
big Joints. Occasionally one is started
on the quiet, but soon attracts the atten-
ton of the police and is squelched. The
latest case of this kind was at 1873 West
Thirty-sixth street, where basement
was hired by one. Claude Harley from
an unsuspecting old lady who
thought he simply wanted to live there.
She found him an unobjectiohablet tenant
though she marveled at the queer odors
that came from his rooms. His many
visitors soon attracted the attention of
the policeman on that post, and he re-
ported the matter to Captain Reilly. De-
tective Jackson was sent to see what was
up, end after several nights Of watching
he recognized some Of the regular visit
ors as opium fiends and the place as
Joint. The place was broken up.
Captain McCullagh OF the Sixth pre-
cnct, high authority on the subject OF
opium smoking, says there is not pub
lie Joint running in the city. Most al of
the Cinnamon smoke opium, either at
their laupdries or in places where thew